FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — By his own estimation, Donald Vaden had a pretty good thing going when he was just a 15-year-old eighth-grader at Silver Lakes Middle School four years ago. Cash, drugs, trips, jewelry, even a car — Vaden says whatever he wanted was his for the asking.

Vaden testified Monday that his benefactor was his 38-year-old study skills teacher, Beth Friedman, and that all he had do in return was have sex with her regularly and not spend any of the money she gave him on other women.

"I was pretty happy," Vaden, now a 19-year-old roofer, said during the first day of testimony in Friedman's statutory rape trial.

The alleged victim, 19-year-old Donald Vaden, testifies Monday.

Whether Vaden was happy or not, what Friedman did was against laws designed to protect minors, prosecutor Stacey Honowitz told a jury of six and two alternates in an opening statement before her star witness — Vaden — took the stand. If Honowitz can prove a sexual relationship occurred, Friedman could face up to 76 years in prison.

"I can't tell you why she was motivated to fall in love with this boy. All I can do is show you through evidence that she did," Honowitz said toward the beginning of a 40-minute statement. "She ultimately became obsessed with Donald Vaden ... Teacher, student, adult, child; that's illegal."

Friedman, who pleaded not guilty, sat composed and showed no emotion as Honowitz told the jury about how she met Vaden in class in 1997 and the two became friends. Dressed in a long, bright violet jacket and long skirt, the now 42-year-old Friedman closed her eyes several times as Honowitz described an evolution of the friendship into something else.

At first it was just a ride home from school. Then it became regular visits to the Vaden home. Beth Friedman and Grisel Vaden, Donald Vaden's mother, became close and no questions were asked when the schoolteacher wanted to take Donald and younger brother Darius for pizza or go-cart racing, Honowitz said.

It wasn't long before Donald Vaden, who also goes by Donny, was calling "Miss Friedman" Beth. Eventually, Honowitz said, Friedman was doing his class assignments, taking him on overnight trips and giving him expensive gifts. An alleged sexual relationship began in December 1997 and did not end until June 1999, when Vaden's parents went to police in Hollywood, Fla.

"'I'll give you drugs, you'll go with me on trips. I'll give you a car, you'll give me a kiss. I'll give you money and jewelry, you'll give me sex,'" Honowitz said, referring to the nature of the relationship between Friedman and Vaden.

In salacious detail, Honowitz went on to describe what she said was Friedman's fixation on Vaden. "She did everything to keep him close. She became obsessed with this kid," the prosecutor said.

Friedman, who has a law degree but never practiced, has pleaded not guilty to the six counts against her, including unlawful sexual activity. She resigned her teaching job following her arrest in August 1990 and remains free on bail. Her defense appears to be that Vaden made it up; to raise reasonable doubt, her attorney will have to impeach the credibility of Vaden and other prosecution witnesses expected to testify that the relationship crossed the line.

Vaden, who has a crewcut and wore a gray dress shirt, clasped his hands in front of him several times as he testified about the relationship on direct examination. He said that when he met Friedman, he was doing "horrible" in school and was more interested in clothes, girls, music and smoking "weed."

"She was the teacher everybody wanted, the teacher who let you do whatever you wanted," Vaden said.

As a friendship grew into a sexual relationship, Friedman would act like "an adult" at school and a "little girl" when she was alone with him, he said. Having few friends of her own, Friedman preferred to hang around with Vaden and his friends, taking them to dinner, movies and trips to amusement parks, Vaden testified.

He said the sexual relationship began with oral sex and, after he said he wanted a car, soon included intercourse. Honowitz is expected to present evidence later that Friedman purchased a used car for Vaden and it had registered in the name of his mother's boyfriend.

Vaden said he continued having sex with Friedman even though he wasn't attracted to her. "I'm not saying she was ugly, but I was more interested in girls my own age."

When he did try to see girls his own age, Vaden said Friedman became furious and would throw his clothes and music tapes. She referred to his male friends as "scumbags" and his girl friends as "hos." Once, he testified, she drove by the park he hung out in and became angry that he was talking to a teenaged girl.

"She'd be yelling, 'Oh, I give you money and you're spending it on this girl,'" Vaden said.

He conceded that he liked the money and gifts. "She gave me everything I wanted. If I mentioned something, it was mine," he said.

Vaden said he had feelings for Friedman and did not want to see her get in trouble. Against Vaden's wishes, his parents went to police after he told his mother that Friedman offered him $25,000 to get her pregnant — no strings attached.

"I was seriously thinking about it," Vaden said.

Defense attorney David Bogenschutz reserved his opening statement for later and began attacking Vaden on dates and places from the start of his cross-examination. Bogenschutz got Vaden to concede that he was no Boy Scout and knew about the mechanics of sex even before he met Friedman.

Bogenschutz then took out a marker and drew a line down the middle of a large sheet of paper mounted on an easel. In the left column, he noted that Friedman was a teacher, had a law degree, and owned a car and condominium, and that her father drove a Rolls Royce. In the right column, he noted that Vaden was an admitted drug user, had scrapes with the law, was failing and school and dropped out toward the end of eighth grade.

As the court day ended, Bogenschutz asked why someone like Friedman would want to pay someone like Vaden to have her baby.

"Twenty-five thousand dollars so that she can get pregnant by a 16-year-old dropout who is a drug user with a criminal background?" Bogenschutz asked.

The question was rhetorical. Testimony resumes Tuesday with further cross-examination of Vaden.